If you have recently received an email from human resources announcing that you are expected to publish three papers over the next year in journals with an impact factor of at least 20, there is one crumb of comfort. You will at least be able to enter the misguided missive for a new, annual “bad metrics” prize, modelled on the Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award for cringeworthy descriptions of hanky-panky.
The award, which will go to “the most egregious example of an inappropriate use of quantitative indicators in research management”, is the last of a series of recommendations on the use of metrics in research assessment arising from a major new review, whose report is published today. James Wilsdon, chair of the steering group for the review, admits that the idea is a “bit silly”, but stresses that it illustrates the serious point at the heart of the review’s conclusions: the need for more “responsible metrics”.
The report notes that “the metric tide”, after which it is named, is being whipped up by “powerful currents” arising from, inter alia, “growing pressures for audit and evaluation of public spending on higher education and research; demands by policymakers for more strategic intelligence on research